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A PROGRAM  OF 
CHINESE  AGRICULTURE 


ABSTRACT  OF 

A THESIS 

PRESENTED  TO  THE  FACULTY  OF 
THE  GRADUATE  SCHOOL  OF 
CORNELL  UNIVERSITY 

IN  PARTIAL  FULFILMENT  OF  REQUIREMENTS 
FOR  THE  DEGREE  OF 

DOCTOR  OF  PHILOSOPHY 


BY 


RUI  FENG,  M.  S.  A. 


OlnrttpU  llmuprattg 


A PROGRAM  OF 
CHINESE  AGRICULTURE 


ABSTRACT  OF 

A THESIS 

PRESENTED  TO  THE  FACULTY  OF 
THE  GRADUATE  SCHOOL  OF 
CORNELL  UNIVERSITY 

IN  PARTIAL  FULFILMENT  OF  REQUIREMENTS 
FOR  THE  DEGREE  OF 

DOCTOR  OF  PHILOSOPHY 


BY 

RUI  FENG,  M.  S.  A. 

JUNE,  1924 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 
in  2017  with  funding  from 
Columbia  University  Libraries 


https://archive.org/details/programofchineseOOfeng_0 


A PROGRAM  OF 
CHINESE  AGRICULTURE 


CHAPTER  I. 

INTRODUCTION. 

The  fundamental  solution  of  the  problem  of  Chinese  agricul- 
ture is  to  reduce  the  number  of  farmei’s  in  the  nation  and  to  de- 
velop a home  market  as  well  as  a foreign  market  through  manu- 
facture and  commerce.  The  solution  of  this  problem  involves  the 
national  development  of  industries  and  commerce,  an  adequate 
system  of  transportation,  national  development  of  agricultural 
education,  seed  selection,  disease  and  insect  pest  control,  farm- 
ers’ cooperative  societies  of  credit,  production  and  marketing, 
and  finally  community  organization  in  the  farming  regions 
(pages  1-36). 

CHAPTER  II. 

LAND  SYSTEMS. 

The  land  systems  in  China,  from  2697  B.  C.  to  the  present 
are  carefully  analysed  and  put  into  chronological  form.  Every 
system  of  great  importance  from  Tsing  Tien  down  to  Kaw  Fan 
Shi  Yat  Tien  and  the  reestablishment  of  the  present  system  of 
private  land  ownership  has  been  described.  Brief  evaluation  of 
the  economic  effects  of  important  systems  is  made.  So  far  as  the 
material  of  this  chapter  is  concerned,  it  is  largely  confined  to  the 
recognized  historical  and  classical  writings.  With  reference  to 
the  archaeological  evidences  of  the  land  systems,  we  can  depend 
only  upon  the  work  of  our  historical  archaeologists  (pages  37-82). 

CHAPTER  III. 

CROP  SYSTMS  AND  FARM  WORK  PLANNING. 

The  farm  work  plan  described  in  this  chapter  is  not  the  plan 
of  a single  farm.  It  does  not  serve  as  a fixed  plan  for  any  farm 
but  rather  as  a schedule  to  guide  and  to  remind  the  farmer  what 
should  be  done  in  every  month  of  the  year,  what  things  he  can 
postpone  to  another  month  and  what  things  he  must  do  before 


4 


A PEOGEAM  OF  CHINESE  AGEICVLTVEE 


it  is  too  late.  As  a result  of  the  study  of  the  farm  work  planning 
of  Chinese  farmers,  at  least  two  facts  are  revealed  to  us.  The 
first  is  that  our  farmer  is  a self-sufficient  person,  being  very  simi- 
lar to  the  American  farmer  a century  ago.  He  and  his  family 
alone  have  constituted  an  economic  microcosm,  supply- 
ing their  wants  almost  entirely  by  their  own  labor.  There  is  no 
specialization;  everybody  is  a “ Jack-of-all-trades”.  The  second 
fact  is  that  the  family  system  of  China  is  the  result  of  agricultural 
inefficiency  in  a modern  sense,  which  is  ascribed  to  the  lack  of 
a market  for  farm  products  (pages  82-100). 

CHAPTER  IV. 

METHODS  OE  MAINTENANCE  OP  SOIL  FERTILITY. 

This  chapter  presents  some  specific  and  some  general  prac- 
tices of  maintaining  soil  fertility  used  by  the  Chinese  farmers. 
So  far  as  labor  is  concerned,  most  of  these  practices  cannot  be 
carried  on  in  the  United  States.  Since  the  labor  problem  is  neg- 
ligible in  the  old  countries,  these  practices  of  maintaining  soil 
fertility  are  quite  rational  and  economical  for  the  conditions  in 
China.  The  things  remaining  for  the  modern  Chinese  agricultur- 
ist to  do  are  to  organize  and  to  assimilate  these  usages  on  a more 
extensive,  systematic  and  scientific  scale.  It  is  found  by  statisti- 
cal calculation  that  in  every  1,000  pounds  of  all  fertilizers  ma- 
terials mixed  in  equal  proportions,  there  are  24.7  pounds  of  nitro- 
gen, 3.0  pounds  of  phosphorus  and  7.9  pounds  of  potassium.  If 
these  figures  are  reduced  to  whole  number,  the  ratio  of  N-P-K 
used  in  China  annually  is  8. 0-1. 0-2. 7.  It  is  also  found  that  the 
amounts  of  nitrogen,  phosphorus,  and  potassium  removed  per 
acre  annually  by  the  common  crops  in  China  are  147.4  pounds  of 
nitrogen,  19.8  pounds  of  phosphorus,  and  100.4  pounds  of  potas- 
sium. When  these  figures  are  reduced  to  whole  numbers,  the 
ratio  of  N-P-K  removed  by  the  crops  in  China  is  7.5-1.0-5.0.  From 
the  above  two  ratios,  we  see  at  once  that  potassium  is  not  suffi- 
ciently supplied  to  the  Chinese  soil  while  the  phosphorus  and 
nitrogen  are  just  sufficient  to  feed  the  crops.  This  statement, 
when  compared  with  the  actual  practice  of  manuring  in  China, 
has  much  significance.  If  there  is  anything  that  must  be  done 
to  improve  our  methods  of  manuring,  the  insufficiency  of  replace- 
ment in  the  soil  should  be  first  considered.  It  is  hoped  that  this 
calculation  will  serve  as  a guide  for  any  measure  or  attempt  to 


A PROGRAM  OF  CHINESE  AGRICULTURE 


5 


improve  the  methods  of  maintenance  of  soil  fertility  of  our  farm- 
ers (pages  105-146). 

CHAPTER  V. 

ACRICULTURAL  SCIENCES. 

This  chapter  discusses  what  has  been  done  in  the  agricul- 
tural sciences  during  the  present  half  century  in  China  and  the 
development  which  is  sure  to  come.  Until  the  last  fifty  years, 
the  methods  of  farming  in  China  were  not  scientific.  But  in  the 
last  20  years  the  science  of  breeding  of  plants  and  animals  has 
been  well  started  in  China.  Most  of  the  work  along  this  line 
is  done  in  cotton,  sericulture,  grains,  and  tea.  The  sciences  of 
entomology,  plant  pathology,  veterinary  medicine,  animal  hus- 
bandry, and  farm  mechanics  have  been  also  in  course  of  develop- 
ment. However,  no  accomplishments  of  great  significance  have 
been  seen  in  any  of  these  sciences.  Of  course  this  is  partly  due 
to  the  embryonic  stage  of  development  of  agricultural  science 
in  China,  but  the  main  reasons  for  this  slow  development  seem  to 
be  the  following: 

A.  Most  of  the  scientific  work  is  not  undertaken  by  experts ; 

B.  There  is  no  cooperation  between  the  work  of  the  several 
agricultural  experiment  stations  and  the  colleges  of  agriculture  ; 

C.  The  results  worked  out  by  the  agricultural  experiment 
stations  and  the  colleges  of  agriculture  are  not  made  avaiable  to 
the  farmers  (pages  147-170). 

CHAPTER  VI. 

AGRICULTURAL  TRADE  AND  COMMERCE. 

The  analysis  of  Chinese  agricultural  trade  in  this  chapter 
shows  the  cause  and  effect  of  its  present  condition  and  what  must 
serve  as  the  basis  for  its  reconstruction.  The  problems  of  every 
agricultural  trade  and  their  solution  are  also  discussed.  Al- 
though every  agricultural  industry  has  problems  of  its  own, 
yet  the  solutions  of  these  problems  in  all  industries  together 
have  many  similarities.  This  is  because  the  depression  in  different 
branches  of  agricultural  industry  has  been  the  result  of  similar 
eai^ses.  Thus  in  summary,  it  is  possible  to  make  out  several 
general  solutions  for  the  agricultural  industry  as  a whole.  These 
general  solutions  are  in  the  main: 


6 


A FBOGSAM  OF  CHINESE  AGEICVLTUEE 


A.  The  increase  of  the  import  tariff  generally  and  the 
tariff  on  agricultural  goods  in  particular; 

B.  Organization  of  trade  associations  and  a national  fed- 
eration of  trade  associations; 

C.  Improvement  in  the  quality  of  both  raw  agricultural 
products  and  finished  agricultural  products; 

D.  Development  of  the  machinery  of  organized  marketing; 

E.  Organization  of  farmers’  co-operative  associations; 

F.  Development  of  agricultural  education  in  general  and 
agricultural  extension  work  in  particular; 

G.  Development  of  railway  and  oceanic  transportation 
(pages  171-232). 

CHAPTER  VII. 

AGRIC’ULTURAL  EDUCATION. 

After  studjdng  carefully  the  work  of  the  present  system  of 
agricultural  education  and  the  needs  of  agricultural  education 
in  China,  the  writer  sets  forth  the  ends  of  agricultural  education 
to  be  achieved  and  the  means  and  agencies  to  reach  these  ends 
in  the  following  categories: 

A.  Ends  to  be  achieved: 

1.  Increased  efficiency  of  agriculture; 

2.  Increased  contentment  and  prosperity  among  the  pres- 
ent farming  population ; 

3.  The  development  and  maintenance  of  a more  progres- 
sive and  prosperous  farm  population  than  the  present  on  the 
farm ; 

■i.  The  gradual  elimination  of  factors  of  agricultural 
disaster  such  as  famine,  flood,  drought,  diseases,  and  insect  pests; 

5.  The  raising  of  the  standard  of  citizenship  and  of  liv- 
ing in  the  rural  districts  to  a status  not  lower  than  that  in  the 
cities. 

B.  Measures  to  reach  these  ends: 

1.  Training  agricultural  specialists ; 

2.  Research  to  solve  various  agricultural  problems,  such 
as  flood  prevention,  dry  farming,  cooperative  organization,  rural 
credit,  controlling  of  insect  pests  and  plant  diseases,  land  tenure, 
rural  social  organization,  and  the  marketing  of  farm  products; 

3.  Training  men  for  leadership  in  agricultural  adminis- 
tration and  agricultural  organization ; 


A PROGRAM  OF  CHINESE  AGRICULTURE 


7 


4.  Furnishing  data  and  principles  for  the  administration 
of  agriculture ; 

5.  Making  available  all  the  results  of  research  of  the 
colleges  and  the  experimental  stations  to  the  farming  population; 

6.  Educating  farm  boys  and  farm  girls  to  good  citizenship 
and  efficient  and  happy  life  on  the  farm ; 

7.  Assisting  rural  communities  in  the  enrichment  of 
country  life. 

C.  Agencies ; 

1.  An  agricultural  college  in  every  province ; 

2.  An  extension  department  affiliated  with  the  college 
of  agriculture. 

CHAPTERS  VIII  AND  IX. 

AGRICULTURAL  ADMINISTRATION. 

The  programs  of  agricultural  administration  are  divided 
into  three  parts  as  follows : 

A.  Ends  to  be  achieved : the  ends  to  be  achieved  should  be 
the  same  generally  as  those  of  agricultural  education. 

B.  Measures  to  reach  these  ends; 

1.  Economic  and  social  measures ; 

2.  Agricultural  science  measures ; 

3.  Cooperative  investigation  and  extension  measures. 

C.  Agencies : 

L National  Ministry  of  Agriculture  which  has  the  fol- 
lowing bureaus ; 

a.  Bureau  of  agricultural  economics; 

b.  Bureau  of  chemistry  and  soil; 

c.  Bureau  of  plants  and  crops; 

d.  Bureau  of  animal  husbandry ; 

e.  Bureau  of  entomology  and  economic  zoology ; 

f.  Bureau  of  forestry; 

g.  Bureau  of  fisheries; 

h.  Bureau  of  drought  and  flood  prevention ; 

i.  Bureau  of  rural  engineering; 

j.  Bureaxi  of  weather; 

k.  Department  of  agricultural  extension  and  investi- 


gation. 


8 


A PEOGEAM  OF  CHINESE  AGEICULTUEE 


2.  Provincial  Ministry  of  Agriculture : 

a.  Department  of  Council; 

b.  Department  of  Technical  Administration ; 

c.  Department  of  General  Administration  (pages  268- 

349). 

CHAPTER  X. 

CONCLUSION. 

The  chapters  of  this  study  have  presented  many  evidences 
to  the  readers  that  prosperity  of  agriculture  can  be  secured  only 
in  conjunction  with  the  prosperity  of  industry.  Without  the 
latter,  the  former  must  remain  as  it  has  been  for  thousands  of 
years.  In  order  to  help  to  maintain  the  world  peace,  China  must 
be  developed  industrially  and  agriculturally.  She  must  open 
her  natural  resources  and  maintain  an  equal  standard  of  material 
accomplishment  with  the  advanced  nations  of  the  world  (pages 
350-359). 

REFERENCES  AND  BIBLIOGRAPHY— (pages  360-373). 


